IMSA points results Long Beach: Felipe Nasr Pipo Derani win

IMSA points, results Long Beach: Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr scored their third IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory in four races, winning Saturday from the pole position in the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

The No. 31 Action Express Whelen Engineering Cadillac closed within 19 points of the DPi championship-leading No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Konica Minolta Acura of Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque (who finished fourth after winning two weeks ago at Laguna Seca). The top division in the sports car series will close the season Nov. 13 with the Motul Petit Le Mans.

Nasr lost the lead briefly Saturday to Kevin Magnussen on Lap 8 of the 100-minute race, but the Chip Ganassi Racing driver smacked a tire barrier two laps later. Nasr and Derani led 66 of the final 69 laps, and Magnussen and teammate Renger van der Zande hung on for second place.

RESULTS: Click here for the finishing order at Long Beach l Results by class

Tristan Vautier and Loic Duval finished third as Cadillac swept the top three finishing positions (as the manufacturer also did in qualifying).

OTHER CLASS WINNERS:

GTLM: Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy scored their second consecutive victory in the No. 4 C8.R Corvette, which also won at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. (The duo also won the Motul 100 qualifying race for the Rolex 24 and the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic exhibition in Detroit.)

It’s Milner’s fourth victory at Long Beach and the second for Tandy.

GTD: Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow finished ahead of Laurens Vanthoor and Zacharie Robichon, who took the points lead in the division as Robby Foley crashed and fell from the championship lead with co-driver Bill Auberlen.

The No. 1 duo of Sellers and Snow earned their first victory of 2021 for Paul Miller Racing (which now has seven career wins) while moving from fourth to second in points.

It also was the first Long Beach victory for Sellers and Snow and Paul Miller Racing.

Pole winners → Grand Prix winners at @GPLongBeach #IMSA pic.twitter.com/9PvyXjO9Tj

— #IMSA (@IMSA) September 25, 2021

POINTS

With two rounds remaining in the 2021 season for the GT cars and one race remaining for the prototypes, the points leaders in each division are:

DPi: Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor

LMP2: Ben Keating and Mikkel Jensen

GTLM: Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor

GTD: Zacharie Robichon and Laurens Vanthoor

Click here for the unofficial standings after Long Beach

STATS PACKAGE FOR THE ACURA GRAND PRIX OF LONG BEACH:

Fastest laps by driver

Fastest laps by driver after race (over the weekend)

Fastest laps by driver and class after race

Race distance and speed average

Time cards

Pit stop time cards

ROUND 1: Points and results from the Rolex 24 at Daytona

ROUND 2: Points and results from the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring

ROUND 3: Points and results from Mid-Ohio

ROUND 4: Points and results from Detroit

ROUND 5: Points and results from the Sahlen’s Six Hours at The Glen

ROUND 6: Points and results from Watkins Glen WeatherTech 240

ROUND 7: Points and results from Lime Rock Park

ROUND 8: Points and results from IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America

ROUND 9: Points and results from IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Laguna Seca

NEXT: The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GT classes will head Oct. 10 to Virginia International Raceway for the Virginia is for Racing Lovers Grand Prix (2:10 p.m. ET, TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold).

An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”

Felipe Nasr, Pipo Derani win from pole at Long Beach Grand Prix; IMSA results, points

IndyCar disappointed by delay of video game but aiming to launch at start of 2024